Steve Martin Bought Forged Art, The Phantom Is Not To Blame

Steve Martin is an interesting guy who possesses a fairly wide swath of interests. He writes (yes, he’s a published author: see Shopgirl a book written by Martin which he also turned into a movie), he acts, and he loves art. So it should not come as a surprise that he is involved in a story about the purchase of a fraudulent piece of artwork; not that he is accused of any wrongdoing, but it’s almost a guarantee that any legitimate art connoisseur has been had by a bogus painting at least once in their lifetime.

In a story by the New York Times, it’s alleged by the German police that a painting Martin purchased in 2004 “Landscape With Horses” by Heinrich Campendonk was actually the work of Wolfgang Beltracchi, who is said to be the leader of a large scale forgery operation in Germany. Martin purchased the painting for $850,000 and solid it in February 2006 where it was sold for nearly $600,000. So not only did he lose a quarter million dollars on this painting, he now gets to find out that the painting was bogus to begin with. At the very least, now we know why he felt he had to come out with a sequel to The Pink Panther; an easy pay day is an easy pay day.